Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from The Smiths!

So far today has been fabulous. I love Christmas, I love my family and I love my friends. 

Gabriel - 5 months

Perhaps I should rename the blog "The Gabriel Update Page" considering it's the only time I seem to manage to get on here and write something! I haven't really had the time to update recently but I know there's a lot of family out there patiently waiting to hear more about the most recent adorable Smith offspring.

So without further ado, Gabriel 5 months!

some positively adorable outtakes with a bow for that Christmas flair ;)

He's a bouncing, jumping fiend and nothing makes him happy faster than letting him use those legs! He's always been strong. The single most common adjective everyone who meets him uses is "strong." This past month he's really started channeling that strength.

He has learned how to roll from back to belly (which means he's a fully mobile baby machine now), sit assisted (he supports himself with his arms) AND can stand for a few seconds while holding onto something. I honestly already miss the non-rolling days when I could run to the other room for something without fear of him rolling off the bed, the trampoline, an other elevated surfaces that babies should never be left unsupervised on.

He's almost 18lbs and growing out of his clothes faster than I can get through them. I'll pick something up, think "Naw that's far too big. Well.. maybe I'll try it." Then I struggle to squeeze him into it!! 

He's so interested in everything we put in our mouths. He practically attacks the cup if I'm holding him and dare to drink something. He can even drink out of a sippy cup. It's incredibly hard holding off on real food, he's so keen. With his digestive issues though, it's even more important that we wait till 6 months. On that note, I think he's getting a bit better with diary in general!! The puking is WAY down even if I have some cheese! I think we might chance it and order a pizza next week and see how he gets on. Darn it.. why'd I have to go and talk about pizza? Now I'm hungry. Eat something then you say? It's 1am. Yeah. No eating for me. 

He loves to laugh almost as much as we love to hear him laugh. Every morning he gives me one of those puppy smiles. You know the one. The "Oh My GOSH!! It's YOU! Where have you been? I LOVE YOU! I'm so excited!!!" smile. Wow kiddo. You slept about 2 feet from me all night... but yes I'm glad you're still excited to see me and I love you too! He smiles so much it's amazing. He gives wet, slobbery, giant, open-mouthed baby kisses. I won't lie. They're kind of awesome. 

You want to see something earth shatteringly heartwarming? Watch Jessica and Gabriel play. (Sorry I just went back and read that. It totally sounds like a teaser for a video. No video. But now that I've mentioned it and gotten your hopes up I'll see what I can catch in the next few days.) His eyes light up when he sees her and for a three year old, she had an incredible amount of patience with him. She takes her big sister duties very seriously. She has her own puppy version for him. The first time she sees him awake in the morning she'll run in, "Baby Gabriel is awake!! Good morning baby Gabriel!! ::kiss kiss::" I hope they're always such great friends. 

I am also your friend.

I've been seeing a lot of backlash about differing parenting styles recently. People saying you have to be hard on your children because the world is a hard place and you can't let them grow up to be wimps.  I sometimes hold my tongue.  I'm afraid to offend people with my views. Maybe this is the problem? The people shoving people around and bullying them, the people who don't believe there's more than one right way to do something - they have LOUD voices. Mine? Not so much.

There are things I agree with and things I don't. Things like not keeping score? No... That's all kinds of ridiculous. How will they learn to try harder if there's nothing to strive for, no reason to practice before next week's game so they can try to win? Not apologizing to your kid when you yell at them out of frustration because you're the "parent" and you shouldn't have to? No. Not cool man. We all slip, we all yell when we shouldn't. Man up and admit that you were wrong. Build a relationship of trust with your kids. Help them become better people. They're the ones who are going to be taking care of you when you're older... or not.

The hugely obvious one that I absolutely hate is "I'm not your friend. I'm your parent." I hate this idea and that adorable little image that's been making the rounds on pinterest and facebook.

I hate it so much that I felt compelled to rework it into a an adorable little image of my own. However, as I hit google to look up the original for context, I stumbled upon this little beauty at Wabi-Sabi Home and Garden

She beat me to it (by over a year.) There's no point in making my own because her's is PERFECT.  I'm not sure she's blogging any longer, but I want to thank her for her words and I want THIS to be the image making the rounds on pinterest and facebook because parenting is important. Building the next generation is important but we also need to teach them how to do more than just survive in this world. We need to teach them how to make it better, because in the words of Dr. Suess "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." ~ The Lorax *hint, it applies to more than just the environment.

So when my daughter has a nightmare and needs a hug and a few extra cuddles at 3am. I will hug her and lay with her even though I need to be up at 7am and the baby had me up at 1am. When she needs help retying her laces for the 15th time, I will take a deep breath and slowly show her how one more time rather than insisting she wears velcro. When my son wakes up for the 3rd time and just needs to know someone is there, we will not make him cry it out. We will stop and smell the roses, we will dance to the music and we will climb that tree one more time even though I'm tired and just want to go home. 

We will teach them to be responsible, caring, kind and thoughtful adults. (Mark will have to teach them math - sorry babe that's on you.) 

Afterthought. 

Okay I've been thinking about it. The first time I saw the "Not your friend" graphic I was hit by a wave of hunh? Of course I promptly forgot exactly what it was that made my eyebrow go up. I've remembered now.

They say, I'm not your friend, I will lecture you, I will drive you crazy. My very best friends are the ones who explain to me, IN DEPTH, why I'm wrong or being an idiot. My best friends DO drive me insane and they'd better be the ones making me come home when I'm out trying to do something stupid. If I've chosen my friends right that is. These are the hallmarks of real friendship. The idiot that encourages you to drink a bottle of whiskey and try to hop a fence at the zoo? That's not a friend. That's an idiot you hang out with. I don't disagree that a parent should be doing those things. I disagree that you can't be a friend whilst doing them. 

the 3 month update

Slight hiccup with Gabriel's monthly photo last week. Every Thursday he's another week older.. last Thursday he was 13 weeks and for some reason my brain told me that because he was born on a Thursday then he must be exactly 3 months on a Thursday. Essentially... EVERYTHING IS THURSDAY!! *cue crazy face* That's wrong. So so wrong. 13 weeks on the Thursday; 3 months on the Friday.

So what happened I hear you asking? Stop rambling about months and weeks not adding up and get on with it?

We had a photo shoot on Thursday.. TONS of photos. Jessica helped. We probably spent a good 40 minutes goofing around with the camera and the kangaroo. That evening when I finally found a photo that I was happy with, a friend posted on a facebook group that her little boy was 3 months today! I was hit with the sinking realization that her baby was born the day before Gabriel... oops.

My first thought was, "Oh well. We'll just do it all again tomorrow." Forgetting that tomorrow my parents would be here with their dog and their cat and would be occupying the guest room space where we take the pictures. My second thought was, "Umm, maybe if we get some downtime it'll happen?" Third thought, "It's tomorrow in Australia. I'm using the picture." Which brings me to....

Gabriel, 3 months old. (Australian time)

He's just as sweet as ever. STILL allergic to dairy... (I'll see if I can remember to post about that...) Sleeping beautifully at night and screaming his lungs out at me right now because he just woke up and I haven't picked him up yet. So yeah, short update this month!

Nom nom

Gabriel will be 3 months in less than a week but for now.. here are some of the outtakes from his one month photo shoot that were too cute not to share.

Every time he sees the kangaroo I chose as his monthly photo object, he tries to eat it! Seriously. Without fail. 

Related much?

More similar than we thought! Jessica is 4 weeks older than Gabriel in these videos (hence the actual leg movement) but at the rate he's growing we didn't think Gabriel would fit in the Pooh Bear sleeper if we waited any longer...

YouTube Doubler

Selfies...

Before you master the camera angle after having a second child.....

but by the time you get second child in the shot... first child has had enough...